


i've been out before but this time it's much safer in

by nosecoffee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Asexual Jughead, Asexuality, Fluff, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, Hospitalisation, Hurt/Comfort, Love Declarations, M/M, Mugging, Post ep 5, Self Esteem Issues, asexual character/s, i love Jughead so much, jellybean is my fave, why do I make him suffer like this?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 04:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10072931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: Fun fact: bullets hurt like crazy when you get hit with one.Bonus fun fact: getting shot twice, hurts more.Extra bonus fun fact: getting shot once in the shoulder, once in the collarbone, will not kill you, even if you're lying on the ground for half an hour wishing that it would.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'Breathing' by Kate Bush

_When you get shot (re: if you're stupid enough to go and get yourself shot for whatever reason), it is instinct to either first scream, or collapse._

_Being someone who's (probably) grown up in the rise in popularity of television and seen a couple of action movies and cop shows and such, you'll think it's normal to immediately drop to the floor post-gun-shot._

_That is a common misconception, but as it is so drilled into our brains by societies knowledge on such things, we cannot abandon instinct._

_So, when you are shot, your first instinct will be to crumple or collapse or scream._

_Unless, of course, you're shot in the head, and die on impact._

_In that case, it's totally rational for you to fall down._

_'Cause you'll be dead._

~

Jughead groans and closes the laptop.

The creative juices are not flowing, especially in this tiny, closed off section of a hospital ward he's been given.

There's a bandage on his shoulder, and his arm is placed primly in a sling, but besides that, he's fine.

Well, as fine as he can be, post-mugging, with his writing hand currently out of order and a pounding headache that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

Jughead's not sure who the hospital called when he was driven to hospital in the back of a pick up and dumped on the front steps.

Thinks they probably called his dad. It's been six hours since then, and no one but a couple of nurses have made any appearances by his side since his admittance.

Jughead decides no one's coming.

It's a small enough town that there is pretty much no local news except for the Blue and Gold and the newspaper Alice Cooper runs, and as she's away, and no one seems to know that Jughead Jones was shot last night, he's not expecting attention.

He's dozing when his phone chimes.

Archie: where are you?? school started an hour ago?? i know you don't like it but skipping entirely is weird

He sighs.

Jughead: I'm a little preoccupied. Got some things on my mind. I'll let you know when I'm coming back.

The response is immediate.

Archie: no. where. are. you.

Jughead turns off his phone.

~

Fun fact: bullets hurt like crazy when you get hit with one.

Bonus fun fact: getting shot twice, hurts more.

Extra bonus fun fact: getting shot once in the shoulder, once in the collarbone, will not kill you, even if you're lying on the ground for half an hour wishing that it would.

~

He has a shattered collarbone, and a break in his shoulder. Internal damage is practically nonexistent apart from that.

He turns his phone back on at 9 pm, only to see his screen flooded with text notifications, missed calls, and voicemails.

Three texts from Veronica - he doesn't remember giving her his number.

1\. Hey, it's Veronica. Archie and Betty are freaking out so please let us know where you are. K, thanks.  
2\. Jughead, please answer your phone. Archie thinks you've died. And that would be a shame.  
3\. I swear to god if you don't answer your phone in the next hour I'm downloading the 'find my friends' app and tracking you down myself.

Sixteen from Betty, as well as fourteen missed calls and fourteen gradually more frantic voicemails.

1\. Jughead. Where are you. Call me.  
2\. I swear to god, Jughead.  
3\. What happened? Where are you?  
4\. Archie said you'd told him you needed to think some things over  
5\. Said that you said you'd 'tell him when you're coming back'?  
6\. What does that mean?  
7\. Are you running away?  
8\. Please don't  
9\. The last time someone tried to run away from this town they wound up dead in the river  
10\. Please answer  
11\. I'm so worried  
12\. Archie's going out of his mind  
13\. WHERE ARE YOU  
14\. FORSYTHE  
15\. PENDLETON  
16\. JONES

There are only four texts from Archie and four calls, and three missed calls from his dad.

1\. Jughead, answer me, please.  
2\. i'm so worried. where are you?  
3\. do you not understand how scared i am? i need to know you're okay  
4\. you're not at Pop's. i'm officially terrified, Jug

Jughead calls Kevin.

"Hello?"

"Kevin. Are you with anybody?"

"No. Who is this?"

"It's Jughead."

"Oh my god, dude. Where are you? You went off the grid, and V, B, and A went berserk."

"I'm okay. Tell them I'm okay. I'll be back when I can. Tell them not to look for me. I'm fine, and there's no need for them to worry."

"Hey, don't hang up on me, tell me where you-"

Jughead hangs up and turns his phone off, before rolling over and burying his face in the pillows.

~

Jughead doesn't know who shot him.

Only knows that he was sitting against the bins out the back of Pop's getting ready to settle in and sleep, when someone cocked a gun and demanded his wallet. He refused and they shot him in the shoulder. Again, in the collarbone, for good measure, before picking up his backpack, shaking it out across the ground of the alley, and running away with his wallet.

He remembers rescuing the picture of him and Jellybean from a puddle before falling into unconsciousness.

~

Someone's holding his hand when he wakes up.

 _Great,_ he thinks, _they found me._

He turns his head, readying an explanation, only to find his sister sitting there with a calm look on her face.

She looks down at him, a small smile quirking the edges of her mouth, showing off her smile-lines.

"I ate your pudding," Jellybean announces. "I'm not sorry."

"I don't expect you to be."

"So," she continues, casually. "You went and got yourself shot, huh?"

Jughead winces, sitting up. "Something like that," he mumbles. "How did you find out?"

Jellybean rolls her eyes. "Got a panicked call from Archie at 9:30 last night, saying you'd gone off the grid. I called dad and he was all nonchalant like 'oh yeah, Forsythe got shot, he's at the hospital' so I came right away. You sleep like the dead, by the way."

Jughead rolls his eyes. "You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

"Considering that you didn't tell them in the first place? I figured you wanted privacy so I haven't said a word to anybody." She fluffs his pillows and gestures for him to lie down. "The doctor who came into check on you an hour ago said they're going to discharge you in a week."

"A week?" He can't avoid Archie for that long. "Shit."

"Also says you're leaving the hospital with the sling. No 'if's, 'and's, or 'but's. And you have to do physical therapy. Getting shot twice is no joke."

"Fuck. I have to tell them, don't I?"

Jellybean shrugs, handing him his phone.

"It's that or watch reruns of _'I Dream of Jeanie'."_ She replies before taking his hand. "Plus I reckon Archie would like to know that you're still alive. I'm going down to get coffee. Take all the time you need."

She leaves the room, with the confidence no fifteen year-old should have, and Jughead turns on his phone, immediately bombarded with a new wave of texts, missed calls, and voicemails.

Thirteen texts and four missed calls from Veronica, twenty seven texts and thirty missed calls from Betty, two texts from Kevin, twelve texts and six missed calls from Archie.

He doesn't read the texts, just goes straight to his contact, and clicks the 'call' button.

It rings twice before he picks up, "Jughead Jones, I am going to murder you."

"At least wait for me to get back on my feet, dipshit."

"Where the fuck are you?"

"That's not important."

"Yes it is!" Jellybean yells from across the room.

"Was that Jellybean?"

"Yeah."

"So, you're with her?"

"Yeah."

"Last night, she said she didn't know where you were. She was lying?"

"Yes and no."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"At the time, she didn't know where I was, but she found me eventually and now she's here."

"Where is 'here'?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready to tell you."

"At least tell me you're okay."

"I'm okay. A little battered, but I'm okay."

"What happened?"

"I made a stupid decision, put my foot in my mouth."

"Was it Reggie?"

"I don't know who it was. They took my wallet."

"Fuck. How badly are you hurt?"

"Oh, a few bruises here and there, some internal bleeding-"

"Stop being fucking sarcastic."

"I got shot in the shoulder and the collarbone. Happy?"

"Not terribly. Did you get medical attention?"

"Yeah."

"Are you still there?"

"None of your business."

"That's code for 'yes'."

"No it isn't."

"How long have I known you?"

"Far too long?"

"So you've been at the hospital this whole time?"

"More or less."

"Fuck you, I thought you were dead."

"Well, I'm not dead. Feel better?"

"No."

"Are you already running out of the house?"

"You betcha."

"Alright. See you when you get here, I guess."

Archie hangs up and Jellybean walks in, holding two disposable cups of coffee.

"Was your boyfriend mad?" She asks as Jughead takes a cup.

"Yes. And he's not my boyfriend."

Jellybean shrugs, taking a sip. "Okay."

"Jelly?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't dad come see me?" He must be emotional because of the morphine but he still feels weak about the tears gathering in his eyes.

Jelly takes a tissue and wipes at the ones that escape down his cheeks. "Dad's messed up, you know that. He didn't come 'cause he thinks you hate him for what happened to mom and the house and stuff."

He takes her hand and she squeezes.

"I've missed you."

~

The thirty minutes of falling in and out of consciousness, accompanied only by the rain and the constant pain of two bullets in his torso, are hellish enough that he actually hopes he dies.

Jughead has put everything back in the bag, put it under the overhang of the roof to protect it from the rain, but cannot seem to find the strength to drag himself out of the puddle of water and blood he's lying in.

He thanks whatever deities he can think of when headlights sweep over him and someone puts him and his bag in the back of their pickup and drives him to hospital.

~

Jellybean's gone when Archie shows up, gone to her school on the south side, and left him with _I Dream of Jeanie_ reruns, as promised (re: threatened).

"Jug." Archie says, storming into Jughead's section of the room. There are no other occupants. He honestly shouldn't be surprised, it's a small town, they probably don't get many people in on a daily basis.

"Archibald," Jughead drawls from the bed, through a mouth of replacement pudding.

Archie approaches him cautiously, and as he gets nearer, Jughead feels guiltier, watching Archie's bags grow darker, frame heavy from lack of sleep.

"You put me through hell." He murmurs, taking a seat next to Jughead. Jughead mutes the TV.

"You think you've been through hell. At least you weren't mugged."

"Why were you mugged?" Archie looks frantic.

Jughead sighs. He'd guessed he'd have to tell Archie sometime, but his pride had always held him back. "I got mugged because I was sitting out by the dumpsters at Pop's. I was sitting out there because they're knocking down the Drive-In and I've been living there since the summer because my dad kicked me out."

Archie looks just about ready to faint. Jughead bites his lip, "want some pudding?"

"Jughead, what the fuck." Archie whispers, taking the uninjured one of his hands, carefully. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Jughead blanches. Worries his lip between his teeth. "When it happened we were fighting, I was angry at you."

"What about after we made up? When they closed the drive-in?" Archie grips his hand harder, looking almost pleading.

Jughead shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant, "Grundy had just left, and even though I never liked her, I wasn't about to force my problems on you when you were still upset."

"God, Jughead. Why didn't you tell me you got shot?" That stops him. Jughead glanced at the TV, still going, and then back at Archie.

"That's all my prides doing, I think." Jughead admits. "I was too embarrassed to tell you."

"Embarrassed that you got mugged?" Archie's expression is incredulous, and so's his tone of voice.

"Yeah. It's stupid, I know, but I guess I didn't want you to know that I was that weak. About any of it. I didn't want you to know that I was struggling." Jughead stares at the hand Archie's holding. Listens to Archie breathe unsteadily for a few moments.

And then, "Jughead, there is nothing in this world that could make me think you were weak."

Jughead's head snaps up to face Archie, face vaguely confused and disbelieving.

"What?" He asks.

"Jug, listen; you are so strong. You've gone through all this with nobody and you're still going. You got shot and robbed and you're acting like its no big deal. You're trying to do this on you're own, and that's got to be so hard to do." Archie's free hand touches Jughead's cheek lightly, gone as quickly as it came. "You don't have to do this alone. You hear me?"

Jughead stares at him for a minute. "Fuck you, Archie Andrews." He mutters.

"Huh?" Archie asks, surprised.

"You're gonna make me cry," Jughead clarifies, pulling his hand out of Archie's and wiping his eyes with it. "You fucking sap."

"Oh shut up." Archie snorts. "I just really care about you, yeah?"

Jughead squints at him before sitting bolt upright and making a pained sound.

Immediately, Archie's up, hand against the small of his back through the thin material of his hospital gown. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Jughead assures him, but catches the red-head's wrists he goes to pull away. "Archie."

"Yes?" Archie's dark brown eyes peer down at him.

"You're in love with me."

A pause of silence reigns between the two. Jughead becomes hyper aware of Archie's hand still on his back, notices how warm it was.

He almost protests when Archie pulls away carefully and the cold comes back.

Archie sits down and looks at him with a vaguely ashamed expression. "How'd you figure it out?" He's not denying it, and Jughead's thankful for that.

"You're an open book, Archie. You always have been. You wear your goddamn heart on your sleeve and that's why you get hurt so often. It wasn't hard for me to figure it out." He replies.

Archie quirks his mouth. "You don't mind?"

Jughead shrugs. "Wouldn't mind someone looking out for me. Think I might feel the same way, but it might be the morphine talking. I can never tell."

Archie nods and stands. "I'm gonna get a water. You want anything?"

"Another pudding." He replies, holding up the empty container.

Archie rolls his eyes. "I'll bring you two."

Jughead slaps a hand to his chest and winces fractionally. "Be still my beating heart." He says in a monotone voice. "You're skipping school?"

"Yeah. I'll call dad at lunch or something." Archie leans in and kisses him chastely on the forehead. "Don't die while I'm gone."

"Just for that, I'm gonna have a heart attack. To spite you." Jughead calls after him as he walks out of the ward.

He falls silent when Archie's gone, touching his forehead with two fingers.

It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but he smiles a little.

And to think it only took two bullets to tell Archie he loved him.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee. Again, thank you!


End file.
